now they're the ones helping after sandy. >> jeff: a contributioned to superstorm sandy rebuilding effort is coming in the form of cash. as elaine quijano tells us tonight an invaluable contribution 6 time and skills is being made by out of town firefighters eager to repay a debt of gratitude. >> they had never met before. but ken rueter and david nick connected like old friends. >> i'm from new orleans, we hug people. >> a lot of happy memories here. >> oh, absolutely. >> reporter: for 16 years rueter has worked as a dispatcher for new york city's fire department. >> how high did the water come. >> the water was up to about here. >> reporter: sandy's storm surge devastated the home his family has owned since 1987. david nick is a new orleans fire department captain. one of 36 firefighters from his city volunteering in new york. helping fire department personnel here rebuild their homes. >> seven years ago we had a pretty big storm in new orleans. and the city of new york sent 600 guys down to help us out. and they made a huge difference for us. >> reporter: their work is partly about rep